downloading is a bitch

[ported_head]

what kind of download speeds do you guys get? im supposed to be having a 40kb/s cable connection..but my download speed goes to a maximum of 6 kb/s. but that hasn't stopped me from downloading about 8 gb in under 2 months!

[kramerman]

Downloads from different places will differ of course. You should go to a connection testing or speed testing website and then go from there.

Alternatively, try downloading from your local ISP, either FTP or something and see what is the max speed you can get. This should be most accurate since it's the closest thing to you without too many hops etc.

Do a search in google for connection speed testing or something.

[fishfreek]

cable connection

Thats teh operitive word. Cable modems are shared bandwidth. So its almost impossible for your cable company to provide consistant service to your household unless they truly cap download speeds for everyone and make sure they dont overload the subscribers on any given neighborhood feeder.

Another thing to remember is the conversion of bits to bytes. 8 bits in a byte and bandwidth is often measured in bits where as disk transfer is measured in bytes.

So if your downloading and you see IE report 8KB/sec then your really transfering at 64kb/sec. Notice the KB vs kb speeds.

There is always some level of overhead to transfer that is needed for what I call control packets. These are packets that fly back and forth confirming your system got the data it was supposed to get or requesting the data be sent again, etc.

[fishfreek]

Offtopic posts have been split and locked. Please dont hijack someone's thread for questions ou already know the answer to.